Prey (8 page)

But why would Shana deny calling? What purpose would it serve her to lie?

Jade is positive she got a call last night, but if it wasn’t from Shana, then who?

What does all this mean?
Jade pondered. What it means is it’s no longer a coincidence that Jade was attacked by those hoodlums last night. It means that whoever called Jade was setting her up. Whoever called her had no plans of her making it off that desolate strip of road alive.

Jade lies back on her bed and mulls over the disturbing occurrences of the past twenty-four hours. Before she knows it, the entire day passes her by. Wrapped in a critical train of thought, the sun has already set and Jade has barely even noticed that she’s been lying in the shady room for hours now. If not for the illumination of the street lights shining through her open window, the bedroom would’ve been completely dark.

Jade is only broken out of her vegetative state when the buzzer to her apartment sounds. She snaps out of her daze and heads toward the front door, cutting several lights on along the way. Jade presses the ‘Talk’ button.

“Who is it?” she asked. She presses the ‘Listen’ button and waits for a response.

A woman’s voice replies, “It’s me, Marie. Let me in.”

“How do I know this is you?” questioned Jade.

“What? Are you okay in there? Could you let me in please? I have to tell you about this crazy date I just had.”

Jade instantly recognizes this as something similar to what Marie would say. Whenever Marie has a horrible date the first person she vents to is Jade. On many occasions, the dates would be so bad that it would lead to Marie making an impromptu visit in order to vent in person.

Jade presses the button to unlock the main gate. At the same time she’s doing this, the house phone rings. Jade walks away from the intercom and heads over to where she left the phone. She picks the phone up and answers.

“Hello?”

“Jade, you wouldn’t believe the date I just had,” a familiar voice blurted out.

Jade furrows her eyebrows. “Marie?”

“Yeah, it’s me. What, you don’t have my voice memorized yet?”

“No, it’s not that,” Jade explained, “It’s just that I’m shocked you couldn’t wait a full minute to tell me what happened. It must’ve really been a bad date.”

“What’re you talking about? Why would I wait a minute to tell you?”

“I just buzzed you in, right? It’ll only take a minute for you to reach my door.”

“Buzzed me in? How could you buzz me in? I’m in my car, heading home.”

At that exact moment, the electricity in Jade’s apartment goes out. The cordless phone is dead. Jade convinces her frightened body to move toward the bedroom so she can recover her cell phone. She’s walking through the hallway when she hears someone knocking on the glass door of the balcony.

Startled by the knocking, she accidently drops the house phone, not that it would’ve done her much good anyway. In the halfway point of the hallway, Jade could has to decide on either pushing forward and getting to her cell phone or going back and see who’s at her balcony door.

This is a third-floor apartment. How could anyone be on the balcony?
Jade thought to herself, her heart beating fast.

Although her instincts are urging her to do otherwise, her curiosity gets the best of her. She turns around and timidly walks back toward the living room, stopping when she reaches the end of the hallway. She presses her back against the wall and squats down. Trying her best not to panic, she takes a deep breath before peeking around the corner. The faint incoming glow from the outside street lights outlines the shape of her uninvited visitor.

Jade’s heart is beating through her chest.

CHAPTER 10

Standing outside of her balcony window is the same young man that has been trying to convince her that he’s Alex Henley. She can hardly see his face, but she’d recognize that heavy trench coat anywhere.

He has his head and hands pressed against the glass, peeking inside the dark apartment. To avoid being seen, she pulls her head back around the corner. She folds her arms on top of her legs and lowers her head, her anxiety mounting. She’s trying her best to keep her fears at bay, but the overwhelming buildup is proving to be too much for her to bear. Jade lowers her head and whimpers softly as tears begin to roll down her cheek.

The shattering of glass behind her causes her to scream. Alex has smashed through the balcony window and is now in the apartment.

“Jade!” he called out. “Where are you?! Jade!”

Jade says nothing. She tightly places her hands over her mouth, hoping to muffle any potential sounds she may inadvertently make. Alex blindly walks through the living room, tripping and stumbling with nearly every step.

“Jade!” he shouted once again.

He continues to aimlessly move through the pitch-black apartment. Alex isn’t aware of it, but he’s slowly closing the distance between him and Jade. Jade, on the other hand, is fully conscious to his enclosing range. If she holds her current position any longer it’s all but guaranteed Alex will stumble over her. Not waiting for this to happen, she gets up and bolts to her bedroom.

“Jade, wait!” Alex shouted, chasing behind her.

Jade runs into her bedroom and slams the door shut and locks it. She dashes over to the nightstand, her intent set on getting to her phone. Sadly, this task proves to be a lot more difficult than originally anticipated when she discovers her phone isn’t where she thought it was. With the room shrouded in darkness, her chances for finding the phone right away are slim to none.

The bedroom door is forcefully torn from its frame, dislodged in a way that no normal human could ever duplicate.

Jade lets out a blood-curdling scream. She runs to the furthest corner of her room and crouches to the floor, crying uncontrollably.

In through the doorframe walks Alex. The room is too dark for either person to see each other clearly. However, Alex uses Jade’s crying to pinpoint her whereabouts. His hearing leads him into the corner where she’s taken refuge. Alex kneels in front of her and gently places his hand on her shoulder.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her in a soothing tone. Jade reluctantly looks up at Alex, her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry about barging in like this. I didn’t mean to scare you, but I had to find out if you were okay.”

“What do you want?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“I want you to come with me.”

Fighting off her tears, Jade pleads, “Please don’t hurt me.”

“I’m not the one you need to be worried about, Jade. As we speak, there’s a demon making his way to this apartment. That’s why I’m here. I sensed him coming and got back here as fast as I could. When I saw all of your lights out I thought I was too late.”

“Please, can you just leave me alone?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that this time.” Alex takes Jade by the arm and stands her up. “I’m not going to hurt you, Jade. I promise. But we don’t have time to debate this anymore. So, since you won’t follow me willingly, I’ll make you follow me, forcefully.” He keeps a balanced grip on Jade’s arm, making sure it isn’t too firm to the point where it could hurt, but not so loose to the point where she could run away.

Alex cautiously navigates her through the apartment and out of the front door. The entire time Jade continues to resist, screaming loudly, hoping to get her neighbors attention. Jade’s plan to stir up awareness works to perfection. Neighbors are looking out there windows and some partially crack their doors, all trying to investigate the commotion. Though none of the neighbors interfere directly, quite a few get to their phones and call for help.

By the time Alex and Jade reach the building’s stairwell, the entire third-floor has been alerted to them. Jade’s resistance has little effect on Alex, who is now leading her down the stairs.

For some unknown reason, Alex stops dead in his tracks between the third and second floor. Jade is so busy struggling to get free that she fails to realize that they are no longer moving. Clueless and curious as to why they’re at a standstill, Jade glances over at Alex to figure out what’s going on. She notices that Alex’s eyes are fixated on something below them. His worried expression was evident even in the darkness. Jade directs her vision toward whatever it was that had Alex’s attention.

Jade gazes down to the first floor in the same direction as Alex and spots a shadowy figure of a man standing in the corridor. Jade, Alex, and the unknown man stare at each other in an eerie silence. The luminosity of the moon accents the man’s silhouette, revealing that he’s of average height and build. What isn’t average about the unknown man is what occurs shortly after she set her eyes on him. The man’s eyes begin to glow a burning, bright red. Jade can’t believe her eyes. Alex snaps out of his trance and focuses on Jade.

“Run, Jade,” Alex told her in a faint whisper.

Jade keeps her eyes locked on the unknown man, whose eyes are beginning to burn so bright they’re illuminating his face and a small portion of the surrounding corridor.

Recognizing that Jade hasn’t budged, Alex shouts at her in a more imposing tone. “Run!”

Jade sees the urgency on Alex’s face. She takes off running up the stairs and back towards her apartment. Alex slowly eases up the stairs, refusing to take his eyes off the ominous being. When Alex nears the top of the stairwell he turns around and follows behind Jade. He manages to catch up to her just as she’s entering her apartment. They both hurry inside and Alex hurriedly shuts the door and engages all three locks.

Short of breath, Jade chaotically asks, “What the hell was that?! Was that what you were telling me about?!”

“It’s one of them.” Alex takes hold of Jade’s hand and guides her further into the living room.

“Do you think those locks can keep him out?”

Alex lets off a sarcastic chuckle. “Not likely. He’ll tear through that door like it was made of paper. Only thing those locks will do is warn us of when he’s coming in.”

“Who the hell is he? What does he want?”

Alex pulls Jade into the far corner of the pitch black living room. “I don’t have a clue whose body that is…but the entity inside of it goes by the name of Markus.”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s complicated. We’re all connected in way—angels and demons. Whenever we’re in the same vicinity of one another we become synchronized with each other. They automatically learn everything about me and I learn everything about them.”

“So what does he want from me?”

Alex stares Jade in her eyes, yet says nothing. The living room is exceedingly dark, but Jade can read the look on his face as plain as day.

Alex simply responds, “I need to get you out of here.”

The front door is violently kicked off its hinges and hurdled across the living room, crashing into what’s left of the balcony door.

Alex scoots Jade behind him, shielding her from any potential harm. Markus enters the apartment, moving at a slow, steady pace. His eyes aren’t burning as brightly as they did before, but they still maintain their dark-red glow.

Markus makes his way toward the alert pair, exposing his sharp, animal-like teeth through a self-assured smile. “Well, well, well…I see we’re not the only ones breaking the sacred rules here,” Markus said, smiling at Alex. “You have no business here, angel.”

“I’m making it my business, demon. And if you think I’m going to let you come anywhere near her, you’re even dumber than you look.”

“Her?” Markus repeated. “Oh, you must mean Jade. Yeah…Of course you do. I can smell her delicious beat from over here. Come on out, Jade. It won’t do you any good to hide from me. I could track your delectable scent from a mile away. You’ll find that things will go a lot smoother if you tell your little bodyguard here to stand down.” Markus moves closer. “Just surrender yourself to me. You’ll save the angel from a great deal of pain if you do.”

Alex takes two steps forward. “Take one more step, Markus, and I’ll show you pain.”

“Ooh, I got chills all over. Talk is cheap my young, angelic friend. When you deal with demons, actions always speak louder than words.”

Markus bolts toward Alex at an incredible speed. He grabs hold of Alex and throws him into the kitchen. Alex disappears out of the dim light of the living room and into the blackness of the kitchen. Shattering glass and the clatter of pots and pans resonate from the kitchen. Markus sets his sights back on Jade, spawning an eerie grin. Jade has no doubt that the creature standing in front of her is a demon. And here she was, standing face-to-face with pure evil, vulnerable and alone.

“I’ve come a long way to meet you, Jade Harris.” Markus momentarily looks Jade over. “You’re a very attractive piece of human flesh. It’s a shame they’re going to dismember you. Such a waste. At least I get to do whatever I want with you until then. Everything short of killing you that is.”

Markus reaches out to grab Jade, but before he can touch her, two arms wrap around him from behind. Jade looks over Markus’ shoulder and sees Alex positioned directly behind him. Alex proceeds to launch Markus and himself through the wall that separates living room from the spare bedroom.

It all happened so quickly, that had it not been for the large hole in the wall, Jade would’ve just thought the two vanished into thin air. The lack of light prevents her from seeing pass the hole, but she can clearly hear the incredibly loud struggle that ensued between the two men. It sounds like sledgehammers are being used to demolish every item in the room. A thunderous boom can be heard when the two explode through another wall, taking the fight into another room. Minutes go by since the fight began, and now, dead silence marks its end.

Jade’s feet are glued to the floor. She knows that the abrupt quietness means that one of the two men is more than likely dead. What she doesn’t know is which of the two that may be. From what she’s just witnessed, Jade is more than ready to believe Alex’s unlikely story. She only hopes that her belief hasn’t come too late.